Anna Dowle

A Women's Royal Naval Service veteran with over 20 years' experience in the private sector delivering multi £M Projects, Programmes and Portfolios across many sectors including various Government Departments.  Specialising in Enterprise & Strategic risk.  Now working within the UK Army Headquarters' TommyWorks organisation. Currently studying for a Professional Doctorate in Security and Risk Management (DSyRM) with the University of Portsmouth – focussing on the Human Factors that need to be understood when developing and deploying Automated Weapon Systems.  Why a Civil Servant working in Army Headquarters?  – to make a difference.  Experience shows decisions being made regarding equipment without considering the potential limitations of the end user.  Too many times equipment is deemed to be a failure because the end user has been disregarded either during the design phase and this can have a detrimental effect on the capability of a unit.  This is where adapting a more agile approach – where the Ministry of Defence works closely with suppliers to feedback lessons from end users and enable continual updates of equipment to be made – ensuring that the UK provides up to date equipment that is not behind the development curve of potential hostile forces.